This teaching is an excerpt from Part #32 of the “The Living Tradition of Meditation Practice” (“Truyền Thống Sinh Động Thiền Tập”), given by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh on November 26, 1995, in the Lower Hamlet, in the Winter Rains Retreat 1995-1996.
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🔔 Video transcript
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"When an advertiser for televisions and computers says, 'We bring people together,' it sounds very enticing. Thanks to the TVs, thanks to the computers, people can come together.
"That statement… We only need to collect our mind to look deeply a little bit. We'll see that it's not true. The TV, it does not bring people together.
"Let's take a pair of father and child as an example. One person is just home from school, and the other, home from work. After dinnertime, they turn on the TV. All day long, they didn't have a moment for one another. They didn't get to talk with each other or have a heart-to-heart with one another.
"And now, they only have a little bit of time left before bed. But they turn on the TV and keep their eyes glued to it. So, let me ask you, is that TV bringing father and child together or dividing them?"
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✩ Full talk's original title: "Hoàn Thiện Bản Thân và Hoàn Cảnh[TTSĐCTTĐB 32] | TS Thích Nhất Hạnh(26-03-1995, XH, Làng Mai"
✩ Full talk originally posted by Làng Mai Editorial Team on Plum Village’s Vietnamese YouTube Channel on Jul 26, 2023 (video); and on the Plum Village’s Vietnamese website, date unknown (transcript), date unknown
✩ Full talk given: on November 26, 1995, Lower Hamlet, Plum Village France, in the Winter Rains Retreat 1995-1996
✩ Watch the full Dharma talk with English subtitles and transcript here
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REFERENCES (Resources used to translate this Dharma talk): Please kindly refer to the video transcript link to see the full list.
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Republished on the Plum Village App with kind permission of Thich Nhat Hanh's Talks channel 🙏